New York will bounce back after Sandy, says former mayor Rudy Giuliani

THE Big Apple may be storm-ravaged and plunged into darkness, but this is New York at its finest, according to former mayor Rudy Giuliani.

"My city has been under a tremendous amount of stress and damage but one of the things I always know about New Yorkers are that whenever things are really bad they're at their best,'' Mr Giuliani told the Property Council of Australia conference in Sydney.

"People used to ask me was it hard to be the mayor of New York after 9/11, the worst snowfall in US history or after a plane crash or a blackout and I used to say those were the easy days.

"The hard days were when nothing was going wrong because then New Yorkers would worry about potholes in the street.''

The Republican, who steered New York through the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks, admitted he was distracted by events at home.

He said that while nothing would make up for the loss of life, the resilient city will bounce back - hopefully in time for the New York marathon on Sunday.

"The city has been through this before and not that it's easy but New York probably does it better than most,'' Mr Giuliani said.

"Looking at it from afar it seems everything that could logically be done was done [and] although you can never calculate, I'm sure there are a lot of lives that were saved by the precautionary measures taken in New York and New Jersey.''

Mr Giuliani said the priority is now to reopen schools and get people back into their homes before rebuilding begins. But he was philosophical about how it could impact on the upcoming US presidential election.

"Maybe what that all adds up to is six of one and half dozen of another.

"Both men have credentials for dealing with emergencies, the real question is going to be who do the American people think is better for their economy?'' he said.